The poker industry has seen its share of familial success. Most notably, you have poker legend Doyle Brunson and his son, Todd. Both are World Series of Poker winners, and not surprisingly, both are considered by many to be among the best in the game. Throw into the mix another father-son combination in Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok, and it becomes clear that at least in poker, the apple tends not to fall far from the tree. Sibling success stories are nothing new, either, as brother-sister duo Howard Lederer and Annie Duke quickly became household names with their performances in the 2003 Tournament of Champions. In fact, just last season, Danny and Zvi Shiff turned heads as they simultaneously cashed in back-to-back WPT events.

Tim Phan resides in California, so he has easy access to the abundance of juicy cash games there. He regularly plays in the highest-stakes games that Los Angeles has to offer, and he has been known to venture to Sin City to play in the "big game" at Bellagio. He has earned more than $1.7 million playing tournament poker, but says the money he earns in cash games is what supports his family.

This hand comes from a $25-$50 pot-limit Omaha (PLO) cash game on Full Tilt. PLO is enjoying a growth in popularity both online and live. There is considerably more gamble and thought involved in a four-card game, in which you must use two cards from your hand, than there is in no-limit hold'em. This hand involves a winning no-limit hold'em player, Zachary Hyman, who is very successful on the tournament circuit and in high-stakes no-limit hold'em cash games. It involves an online situation in which he has dry aces (not suited) and a suited K-6. Zach is relatively new to PLO, and because of this, he may have overplayed his hand a little.

I have had a lot of people ask me the same question lately, either when playing online at PokerStars or through e-mail. I even had a few people ask me this question at the World Series: What is your favorite poker book?

A Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill that, if passed, would give some clarity to what kind of online activities the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) could be used to stop.

In my last column, I discussed a big bluff that I pulled off with 4-2 on day two of the 2008 World Series of Poker. I started day three with 281,000 in chips, which was well above the average stack size (the average was 96,000). When I sat down at the table, I noticed that Tracy Scala was sitting a couple of players to my left. Scala was the overall winner of the FSN (Fox Sports Net) reality show The Best Damn Poker Show, with Annie Duke and me, and had recently been a thorn in my side!

I had high hopes for the World Series this year. I've been running fairly salty in tournaments for the past year, and figured it was about time that my luck changed. I figured wrong.

I've always thought I play weak players well and am comparatively weaker against good players, in part because I developed my poker game in Washington state at a time when the poker games had all the restraint and control of Vegas craps tables.

That is the mother of all poker questions. I've probably seen a variant of this question asked almost a thousand times. Can a game be too good, or too loose, or too soft? Do you actually want some good players in your game? Can a bunch of schooling fish turn even the best player into a sucker?